Men's Tennis Falls in NCAA Second Round

FORT WORTH, Texas. – The No. 36 LSU men’s tennis team fell 4-0 to the No. 4 team in the country, TCU, Saturday in the second round of the NCAA Division I Men’s Tennis Championship.

“TCU played a great match from the beginning,” Head Coach Jeff Brown said. “We certainly didn’t play our best today, certainly in doubles, but I thought the guys responded well and a few of the guys were starting to turn things around at the end.”

“This LSU team really took a turn about mid season. They really did a good job at giving themselves the opportunity to make it to the tournament and to finish strong. A lot of credit to this team for responding to some of our demands and really handling it well.”

The Tigers trailed 1-0 heading to singles after losses from courts one and two in doubles. Court two’s Justin Butsch and Tam Trinh fell 6-1 to Trevor Johnson and Guillermo Nuñez, followed by a 6-0 loss from the No. 6 duo of Jordan Daigle and Boris Arias to No. 65 Hudson Blake and Reese Stalder.

Continuing to singles, Daigle faced the No. 5 player in the country, Cameron Norrie, on court one falling, 6-2, 6-2. Andrew Korinek followed with a 6-4, 6-4 court four loss to Jerry Lopez. Freshman Nikola Samardzic, after falling 6-3 in the first set, saw improvement in his second but fell, taking a 6-3, 7-5 loss to Trevor Johnson.

Sophomore Gabor Csonka, who took a win in yesterday’s match to help solidify his team’s 4-3 victory, had pushed his court three match to a third set but was left unfinished.

“I have to give TCU credit,” Brown said. “They played at a very high level. We are excited going forward with our top three guys coming back and with our new recruits coming in.”

LSU returns home in preparation for the NCAA Singles/Doubles Championships in Tulsa, Okla. May 25-30. Daigle will participate in the singles competition as well as in doubles with Arias as his partner.

“We are looking forward to the future and thank the seniors for all of their contributions,” Brown said. “They’ve meant a lot to the program and we are going to make them proud going forward.”

For up-to-date information and behind-the-scenes access on the Tigers, fans can follow the LSU men’s tennis team on Twitter and Instagram at @lsutennis and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/lsutennis